Technology has become an integral part in the day-to-day operations of many, if not most, business models. Some business models rely on a large number of computing systems in the day-to-day operations; often referred to as an enterprise setting. Currently, a number of administrators and associated support are tasked with the difficult and often lengthy undertaking to configure and deploy each computing system. For example, an administrator and support staff may spend many hours and days setting up and configuring a server farm for an organization. Moreover, in certain circumstances, a previously configured computing system may need to be reconfigured for a particular purpose. The reconfiguration can take just as long or longer as compared with the original deployment. This is an inefficient and costly process.
An example serves to illustrate the inefficient, costly, and in many cases, cumbersome process of configuring and deploying several computing systems. In this example, a tester needs to replicate a server cluster to perform content testing. The tester first needs to call-in or e-mail the replication request. After receiving the request, a system engineer searches for available servers to satisfy the request. If the requested number of servers are available, the system engineer rebuilds the servers in accordance with the configuration request and sends status e-mails (or makes calls) to relevant parties.
Next, the system engineer has to manually create a new machine.xml file including adding new server names. The system engineer then pulls the shipment file for the particular cluster. A shipment file can be described as a file or program that includes code and content jobs which have deployed to certain a particular cluster and/or environment. The system engineer then uses a deployment tool (e.g. command line dispatch) to deploy relevant bits on the servers.
Once each server has been successfully configured and deployed, the system engineer sends an acknowledging e-mail or makes a call to the relevant parties, including a request to inform the engineer once the servers are no longer required. Adding further difficulty to the problem, the system engineer has no easy way to track all of the information associated with the particular configuration and deployment. Thus, the current state of configuring and deploying multiple computing systems typically requires many man hours and can be a costly and error prone process.